diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 57b06fc86..8535685a3 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
-[submodule "git/ext/async"]
+[submodule "async"]
 	path = git/ext/async
 	url = git://github.com/gitpython-developers/async.git
+[submodule "smmap"]
+	path = git/ext/smmap
+	url = git://github.com/Byron/smmap.git
diff --git a/git/__init__.py b/git/__init__.py
index 4a4200cc1..adc5487e6 100644
--- a/git/__init__.py
+++ b/git/__init__.py
@@ -14,13 +14,15 @@
 #{ Initialization
 def _init_externals():
 	"""Initialize external projects by putting them into the path"""
-	sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'ext', 'async'))
-	
-	try:
-		import async
-	except ImportError:
-		raise ImportError("'async' could not be found in your PYTHONPATH")
-	#END verify import
+	ext_base = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'ext') 
+	for package in ('async', 'smmap'):
+		sys.path.append(os.path.join(ext_base, package))
+		try:
+			__import__(package)
+		except ImportError:
+			raise ImportError("%r could not be found in your PYTHONPATH" % package)
+		#END verify import
+	#END handle external import 
 	
 #} END initialization
 
diff --git a/git/ext/smmap b/git/ext/smmap
new file mode 160000
index 000000000..cf297b7b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/git/ext/smmap
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit cf297b7b81bc5f6011c49d818d776ed7915fa1ee